Technology has come a long way since it started. Remember how a few megabytes of storage was a wardrobe size computer to put all the data in the 1980’s and the computer was just in its infancy that you have to enter certain codes to use its basic functions. And during those times acquiring these gadgets are next to impossible. Other than they are very expensive, they are also inaccessible to the public. And how people have to buy physical tapes to listen to the newly released music. Internet was also a difficult subject to comprehend until in the 2000’s when it became bearable. Soon, there was Google that made searching something from the internet more convenient and then there were handheld devices that have several different apps from playing various games to finding your way to an unknown location. But how did it all started? How can technology move from entering codes and switching all the buttons on a machine to get a result to ordering pizza with just one push of a button?

Altair BASIC

Microsoft is a company that dedicated itself to invention and innovation of manufactured goods and services related to computing. It is founded by best friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The two were computer geeks that were committed to their crafts. In January 1975, Paul Allen read an article about the Altair 8800. Remember, this was considered as a computer but unlike the computers today, Altair 8800 was basically a machine with a lot of switches and buttons. Bill Gates and Paul Allen contacted MITS to offer to them their services. They offered to create a program that would be easy for people to use using a keyboard. It was an interpreter for the program so that the keyboard would be the main controller for this computer. And MITS was not wrong to employ Gates and Allen as they were able to make the software called the Altair Basic. It was simpler and easy to understand and does not need a computer geek to really use it. MITS agreed to distribute and market the product. Thus, inspired the two friends to create their own software company. On April 4, 1975, Microsoft was born and on November 26, 1976, it was registered to the secretary of state of New Mexico.

The Start of the Great Career

In 1980’s, there was a race among companies that centers in technology. IBM or the “Great Blue“, as popularly known, was in the action and was hell-bent to put their names in the history of invention and innovation. IBM had a lot of competitors and the company was ready to put their invention to the market. Having established its hold in the market, IBM came with a complete 16-bit operating system from Microsoft which is the Microsoft Disk Operating System 1.0 (MS-DOS 1.0) as the IBM PC operating system. MS-DOS is a single-user, single-tasking computer operating system that uses a command line interface. Microsoft, seemingly makes things easier than any other software that was available on the market. From then on, Microsoft became the software giant and dominated the market. From a 16 million dollar revenue in 1981 to over $97 million in 1984, the mark that they made was surely seen. This was also bolstered by the introduction of Microsoft Word in 1983 which was recognized as one of the first “what you see is what you get processors.” Microsoft continues to rise up their innovation as they released Windows version 1.01 in 1985 which prompted the use of the mouse more often than it should. And from then on, Microsoft continues to surpass every expectation.

Today, we see these inventions and use them more often. From Microsoft Word to the Xbox everything is an invention and innovation of Microsoft. Thanks to Microsoft, life becomes easier for all of us.